Supporting An Object On A Cake?

Hi, I am making this cake for my mother's birthday. One, she is an avid gardener. Two, this cake must travel 600 miles and it seems to me that it would be a semi-easy cake to make up the pieces separately and assemble once I got there. I want to use a real flower pot like the creator in the picture did, but I was wondering what would be the best way to support the weight of the pot full of cupcakes? Plastic wilton dowels? The base of the pot seems so small to be able to put many dowels and I want to make sure it doesn't sink into the cake. Here is the photo of what I want to do. I've PM'd the person who made this, but I'm not sure how often they get on here. Any advice would be great!!! Thanks!

You must use some type of support under the pot. Perhaps you could glue a disc of foamcore board or a cake circle on the bottom of the pot (so it doesn't touch the icing directly). Then use wood dowels to support it. The Wilton plastic things would be too big.

And your idea of taking everything separate and assembling on site is the way to go for sure!